Otter is an artificially-intelligent voice-recognition app that has been around for a few years now.

The two apps were used during a Zoom call on my laptop, a live one-on-one outdoor conversation across the driveway with my neighbor, and a live five-person dinner table conversation with my family.

I intentionally avoided researching each app’s capabilities in advance, allowing me to see how intuitive each app was to navigate.

I used both services just as I would in my normal day (I’m deaf with limited speech recognition thanks to an auditory brainstem implant).In my role as the Director of Sales for Redux, an innovative service for completely drying hearing aids in minutes, I’ve come to appreciate shared knowledge within the hearing care community so here is my personal experience with the new Live Transcribe for iOS versus my current go-to service, Otter. It took me some time to make sense of how this app differed from Google’s Live Transcribe (available only on Android) app with the same name or yet another app similarly named “Transcribe Live”. When I read last week that another developer launched “Live Transcribe for iOS” (hooray for more choices!), I immediately downloaded the app to check it out and compare it to my usual transcription tools. Instead, I’m constantly on the lookout for the next best thing that doesn’t require me going rogue and getting a Google device (thereby giving up access to a charger in nearly every room of our home). Consequently, that means Google’s well-regarded Live Transcribe was not an option for me. My wife and I have three teens, and all of us are loyal iPhone users. Not only do I have access to this technology right in my pocket … I have choices! The way people communicate is very personal, so having choices gives many of us with hearing loss a feeling of control over something that can often feel very much out of our control. As a member of the deaf community, being able to read what people say in real-time has positively impacted me professionally, socially, and emotionally.

Otter voice transcription